Metamorphosis

if i'd realised that jean Lorra had written this novel I would have read it a long, long time ago. survivors, the other work I've read, is without doubt the most emotionally-compelling Star Trek novel I have ever come across.

Lorra's done it again, this time, with Data. He played an important part in Survivors, and a lot of that bleeds through. The story of tasha yar was a tragic one - but of course, Data's quest for Humanity, if written well, could be as poignant and as heartfelt as yar's lost love.

Could be, I said? Only could be? Why should I be so unstinting with my enjoyment? To answer that, we have to go back a little in time - my time, that is. In actuality we're jumping forward from the viewpoint of the novel, all the way to the tenth star trek movie, nemesis. And forward again, to the end of nemesis... to Data's sacrifice. "Good bye", he said. And then he fired his phaser into the Thalaron matrix of the Scimitar, obliterating the ship, the danger, and himself. The look In picard's eyes when he realises what's going to happen - pivital. Immense. Breathtaking. Or it should have been. having no vision, I am unable to judge. The paragraphs describing it on page 180 of J.M. Dillard's novelisation certainly seem adequate, but no more than that. there's no depth, no emotional punch. I left the cinema having enjoyed the film, wondering absently just how many more times the Enterprise would grace our screens, saddened that Data was gone, but not truly involved in the sacrifice he made for his crew and the people of Earth. The novel? I don't know, I haven't read it. Apart from the few pages I just consumed to get an impression of the thing it has never been opened.

so perhaps now you'll understand why, when I sat down to read this author of Authors and realised that the story was going to be Data-centric, I had my doubts. not about the quality of the writing or the impact it would have, but about just how far my own feelings could stretch to a character I'd enjoyed on TV but that I knew was going to be blown to smithereens in an alien starship. I wanted the Data from the future of All Good Things, the professorial, contraction-spouting Data that he'd tried so hard to become, whilst respect for the character and his actor swelled through one-hundred and seventy-five television and four feature-film appearances.

This book takes place before all of that, of course, and before anyone starts jumping down my throat, I know that these things aren't canon. I even know that there are some apocrypha, some inconsistencies in both backstory and future development. But how can anyone deny the power of this novel? how can anybody, anyone at all who appreciates the character that was Data not read this book and come away moved? i'll admit that it didn't have the emotional impact of the story of yar - Tasha was different. less defined on screen, more malleable and, I think, better suited to lorra's style of story. But with that in mind,, the impact is still considerable.

There are a few minor things to point out. The use of the term "landing party" leads into "away team", and I like that - truly a generation gap. did they use Landing party on enterprise, when matter transport was less employed? I hope so. good continuity. Similarly, the "it was a vision/dream" approach might have been tiresome, if it weren't for the vestigial deja vu-like sequences. personally, I think Thralen should've died the second time around, just to bring home the universal constants of suffering and pain - perhaps I'm being a little morbid but it otherwise seems too perfect, too q-like, to keep terms within trek Vernacular.

Darryl Adin has remained a seriously underplayed character - if Peter David's new Frontier lot can take off so well, why not an extraordinarily effective bunch of freedom fighters with a former Starfleet security officer?

That's enough, I think. jean Lorra has managed to take two brilliantly portrayed characters right off of our television screens and provide them with deep, rich, and vibrant emotions through two TNG novels all their own. i'm sorry, but Dillard's pros just cannot compare.